COMMUNITY FISHERIES (1997-2001)

Details

25 October 2001

Hudghton (Greens/EFA) - Mr President, I should like to add my thanks to the rapporteur, a fellow Scot, for her work on this document, and likewise to my SNP colleague, Mr MacCormick, for leading the Committee on Legal Affairs' consideration of this report which I support. The size of our fishing fleet in the European Union is one of the greatest problems that we are faced with when considering CFP reform, but the real measure of activity should be effort as opposed to fleet size. In order to secure what we all want, sustainable fisheries, then surely fishing effort must be made to correspond to available resources. I agree with the need to extend MAGP4, but I have some concerns, in three areas in particular. Firstly, it is intolerable that safety has been taken out of the equation. The provisions that currently exist to increase objectives on grounds of safety should be maintained. We should be looking for tighter control and management to ensure that these provisions are not used to circumvent the rules. Safety must remain a priority and I hope the Commission will recognise this and also make up for its failure to include adequate provisions on safety in the Green Paper. Secondly, while there must be penalties for non-implementation of MAGP targets, surely they must be targeted at the guilty parties. It must be wrong to penalise one segment directly for the acts or omissions of another. It is also necessary to make sure that those Member States which claim to have met their MAGP targets are not simply transferring their vessels to other flags. Thirdly, the proposals which limit financial assistance from FIFG to segments where reduction of fishing effort is obtained through capacity reductions only seems to me unjust and would discriminate against fishermen whose Member States choose to reduce effort through schemes such as days at sea. One reason why these targets are not met is that some Member State governments have not been prepared to match funding for restructuring. The Commission must look at ways of ensuring that restructuring funds can be distributed in an equitable fashion throughout the EU fishing industry. There is a need for more standardised and more rigorous assessment procedures right across the EU. Only if we have fixed, clear and comparable criteria for the measurement of vessels, including engine power and tonnage, can there be confidence in the targets that are set by MAGPs.